After Blowing Two Saves in Three Days, Jonathan Papelbon Critiqued (Criticized?) His Teammates

“Fundamentals, fundamentals,” said Papelbon, trying to explain the Phillies’ 35-38 record. “This is a game of fundamentals, and we’ve got to do the fundamentals right, and keep grinding. It’s a game of who grinds the most and who plays the best fundamental baseball. That’s pretty much it.”

“To be able to win and to be able to be in the forefront of the playoff race, you’ve got to play good fundamental baseball and do the little things in this game. And the little things are all before that pitch is thrown. Every pitch. There’s 150 pitches thrown by our pitchers, and before every one of them, we’ve got to make sure we’re putting ourselves in a position to be the best we can be before each pitch.”

29 Comments

JunkheadJune 20, 2013 at 7:59 am

With the Phillies over 7 games behind in the wildcard with tons of teams ahead of them, if they have any prayer at a playoff spot they can’t let games like this slip away.
Papelbon is simply talking out of frustration, but the bigger issue is the Phillies going from the first inning to the tenth inning without a hit. That’s really disturbing!
And we all knew the league would adjust to Dom Brown, now it’s his turn.
P.S. Do the Phillies even bother scouting Cuba? The Dodgers come up with Puig who looks like he could be a terrific player.

Even though Papelbon picked a wrong time to criticize someone else’s dirty laundry while he’s got skid marks in his own drawers, everything he said about the Phils and their woeful lack of fundamentals was spot on. Meanwhile, I’m glad I’m not the only one angry over the fact his teammates went into a goddamn coma at the plate after the first inning, their offensive ineptitude was as much to blame for last night’s loss as Pap’s misadventure in the ninth. But then, this is what the Phillies have been since last season, an underachieving, poorly constructed, middle of the road team that’s totally incapable of playing solid baseball night after night and nothing figures to change. Nearly half the season is over and this kennel has spent all of ONE day above .500. ONE FUCKING DAY!! That, my friends, is pathetic! Anyone who still beleives things will get better and this team will contend for one of the two wild cards is delusional.

sure its frustration from blowing two saves recently, but everything Paps said IS accurate, they play really really stupid baseball. like surprisingly stupid for a major league level team. thats why they are where they are.

What makes him a dick? The fact that he’s on a team of either old over paid bums or the fact he’s one of the few players on that team that hasn’t mailed it in and he’s pissed and is willing to call them out on it?

lemme ask you, when kevin frandsen has what as attributed at a “great” night defensively, why does he need a defensive replacement? then you look further… past the no hits since the first inning deal… the leadoff batter in the 9th for the nationals… why is ryan howard standing on first base? when you are up 2-1, with your closer on, old chollie chose to put in a defensive replacement for frandsen, with his defensive great night, and not howard, who is allegedly hurting, and has no range defensively. if they make that out on the leadoff batter, the game is sealed. werth doesn’t even make it to the plate in the 9th. don’t even get me started on that shitbreak ump missing a strike call the pitch before the GS. don’t even tell me it was a ball. they don’t show that pitch on Baseball Tonight on ESPN if it’s not a blown call by the ump. but that’s not as disturbing as charlie’s ineptitude. bottom line, when you’re putting in defensive replacements? first defensive replacement is definitely bubba gump in right field. right behind him on the importance level is ryan howard. move frandsen to first, galvis to second. the third replacement should be michael young at third (though, they don’t have a natural third basemen on this squad so i get it) The reality is, is that ryan howard and his bum leg shouldn’t be out there in a 2-1 game in the bottom of the ninth where you’re protecting the lead and your closer is on to finish it off. the closer can’t do it all, and he needs great defense, which in turn makes him a great closer. yea, some guys didn’t get hits. some guys couldn’t make the play. some guys couldn’t keep the ball in the ball park. but NONE of that matters if you just make a defensive replacement for ryan howard at first. none of it. and we swept the nats. fyi, charlie did this the last two nights as well, with the phillies leading. no reason for it other that he could argue “i need the bat in the lineup just in case.” THERE’S NO JUST-IN-CASE HERE, CHOLLIE. JESUS. and wheels? what team do YOU root for anyway? go suck an egg. you stink like my pee after a binge night of sauerkraut and asparagus.

2. Talk about fundamentals, talk about lack of hits, plate discipline, whatever. I put this loss on Charlie. Kyle Kendrick should have pitched a complete game. He was still cruising with two outs in the eighth, at (I believe) 93 pitches. He was dominant. Why the fuck did Charlie pull him? For the lefty-lefty matchup? Horseshit. That was KK’s game to lose, and Charlie took that from him. Once again proving Charlie doesn’t know how to handle a pitching staff.

Lastly, that grand slam landed about 3 rows in front and 3 seats to the right of me. The guy whose hands it hit was pretty sure he has a couple broken fingers. That ball was crushed.

I had a bad feeling about Pap last night. Knowing how easily shaken a closer’s mindset can be (especially ones like him) I didn’t like him coming back right after his first blown save of the season. Personally, I’ve had it with Rube. Under his watch the scouting dept. has gone to shit, his core players have underperformed, and his signings/extensions have been mediocre at best. Add to all that, his smug, snarky and entitled ‘I’m the smartest guy in the room’ attitude and it’s almost too much to take. The Phillies front office took a step forward in hiring a GM (Gillick) from outside the organization, but took a step back with the hiring of RA as his replacement. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rube was fired they brought back Ed Wade.

@Trap: If you look in the directory for the Phillies front office, you’ll see that Ed Wade is still working there, as some kind of assistant for operations. Rube needs to go, Manuel needs to go, and Wade needs to be dragged out of whatever little crevice he managed to slither his way into and fired as well. Montgomery has to learn the hard way that people who kiss his ass aren’t the best people to run or field a baseball team.

The grounder by Span to lead off the 9th is an out with every other mlb in baseball except the Phillies.

Papelbon knows a bad product when he sees it. He thought he was coming to a well oiled machine. He was mistaken and he’s venting his frustrations. This is 2 years in a row of dreck and the guys sounds like he wants out. I can’t blame him.

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